Haunted
by MillaSnape
Summary: After Iori's death, his eternal rival feels lost in life. He just doesn't understand why. One day, Kyo goes to the cemetery to "visit him", and communicates the only way he knows how.


**Disclaimer:** King of Fighters doesn't belong to me, and I will not make any money with this story.

**Warning:** Yaoi, language. (The yaoi is open to interpretation… not even Kyo is aware of it.)

**Summary:** After Iori's death, his eternal rival feels lost in life. He just doesn't understand why. One day, Kyo goes to the cemetery to "visit him", and communicates the only way he knows how.

**Note**: _[[example]]_ means stuff that Kyo wrote, then thought better of it and risked it with his pen… but of course it still can be read. He should have used a pencil instead! ;-) (I tried using Strikethrough instead, but would have none of it.)

Enjoy!

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**HAUNTED**

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**Oneshot**

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_Letter from Kyo Kusanagi, left on Iori Yagami's grave__  
><em>_Zōshigaya Cemetery, Tokyo, Japan__  
><em>_October 23rd, 2004_

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_[[Hello Yagami,]]__  
><em>_[[Greetings,]]__  
><em>_[[Dear Iori,]]_  
>Yagami, you son of a bitch,<p>

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I can't believe I'm doing this! _[[__I feel like the biggest idiot ever.]]_ I'm alone, here in this empty _[[__and kind of creepy]]_ cemetery, sitting on this cold dirt, getting my jeans muddy and by _[[__butt]]_ behind cold (better than sitting on a grave, as _[[__I am superstitious and]]_ I respect the dead), wasting my time coming here and scribing on a piece of paper. I, Kyo Kusanagi, with much better things to do, and more interesting (not to mention, more alive!) people to talk to. I, who hate to write.

Writing a letter to a dead man. To you, from all people. Damned Yagami. We never exchanged two civilized words, nothing beyond insults and threats. From you, I've only heard pearls such as "Prepare to die today!", "Fight like a man, or are you afraid of me?" and "I hate you more than anything in this disgusting world". (I get a warm and fuzzy feeling in my chest, just by remembering it!) Except for these delicate displays of affection, our conversations were always carried out with our fists. Why waste words, when a good punch in the gut said so much? And now, after all that, here I am, "talking" to you in a calm and civilized manner for the first time. Ironic, no?

_[[If I had come here to dance on your grave, it would have been more acceptable. Well, I]]_ If I had come here to dance on your grave, it would have been more acceptable. If my father caught me here, that's what I would claim. "I came dance on Yagami's grave, father! Come join me!" Anything less than that and he would _[[__send all his ninjas to attack me at once and kill me]]_ disown me.

But I didn't come here to celebrate your dismissal. I didn't come to poke fun, to boast, to say "Haha, now I'm the best fighter". _You_ would do something like that. If it were me buried in this hole of dirt and cement, you would show up every day to _[[__piss on my grave]]_ desecrate my resting place, to throw it on my face that you finally had killed me, that I was where you wanted me. You wouldn't leave me in peace, not even here. But I didn't come to torment you; contrary to what you always believed (for a reason that I never understood) I was never this _[[__arrogant son of a bitch]]_conceited, proud and intolerable guy that you always perceived. I was never a cruel person.

If you could see me now, you would surely laugh that sadistic _[[__and psychopathic]]_laughter of yours _[[__that would make Hannibal Lecter tremble and run away with his tail between his legs]]_ and would call me Kusabaka_._ As if you needed an excuse to insult me!... Only this time you would be right: I am being an idiot.

_[[I swear I'm not crying, this would be ridiculous and impossible, but]]_ Only for the record, this stain on the page is a dew drop that fell from the tree above us. Just so you know.

I'm blabbering, huh? I'll get to the point. I came over here to tell you this:

YOU BASTARD, DAMNED, IDIOTIC, ASSHOLE SON OF A WHORE! You stalked me for years, made my life miserable, didn't allow me one day of peace, since that godforsaken day when we've met... and nothing has changed, even after you died! WHY CAN'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?... _[[__WHY THE HELL DO I MISS YOU SO DAMNED MUCH?]]_

I bet that the only reason why your ghost is not haunting me is because you can't, _[[__because you must have gone straight to hell and the devil won't allow you...]]_Otherwise you would still be after me, being my shadow, following me wherever I went, tormenting me. You've always enjoyed doing that.

Sometimes I ask myself if you might be doing exactly that. If your accursed spirit has been following me all this time. If you will suddenly appear in front of me to try to scare me to death, since you weren't able to kill me with your own hands like you wanted, when you were alive.

But I know you're not here. If you were, I would feel your cursed presence. Remember how we used to feel each other's energy from blocks away?... It's really strange to try to find you, to feel your energy, and to find nothing there. To feel only an emptiness... a hole, something missing.

As I've said, you torment me even after you're dead! Your absence is just as intolerable as your presence, Yagami. How do you do that?...

I look at your simple tombstone (there is only your name here, date of birth and passing, and that's all. No picture - imagine your angry face here, it would scare away even the wandering souls! - or an epitaph. It looks like the Yagamis didn't bother with you more than the strictly necessary. What amazing payment for having been the perfect son, for having done everything that your clan expected from you, for having hated me since childhood – as they've ordered – only because of my last name... don't you think? Don't be angry, I'm not making fun, only making an observation. Here between us, if I were in your place, my family also wouldn't shed more than a discrete tear out of obligation. _[[__(This is all that I needed; now I'm treating you as a confidant...) ]]_

But as I started to say and got lost: I look at your headstone, to this grave of concrete, and try to imagine you lying down there, underneath the earth, but I just can't, the idea doesn't make any sense. The great Iori Yagami, decomposing, _[[__being eaten by the worms]]_, disappearing, like any regular mortal? That's absurd, unbelievable!

Sometimes I believe I'm going to wake up and see that all this was a dream. Or better, a nightmare. I'll know that you are well, the same idiot of usual making my life hell, and the world is still spinning on his axis. Any moment now, I expect to wake up... but this moment never arrives. I know that time doesn't matter in dreams, but here for me it's been half a year already. The longest six months of my whole life.

Even now, I don't think I would be too surprised (at least in the beginning!) if you showed up here, in front of me, healthy and strong as always, laughing at my expense. It would be so typical. And for some reason that escapes me, right now I would prefer to hear your mocking, cruel laughter than not hearing you at all. Your silence is much worse than your insults. I'm not used to being ignored by you... you've never ignored me before. _[[__I never thought I would miss a crazy man stalking me.]]_This silence of yours is absurd, incomprehensible. It isn't right.

'Kusanagi baka!" I can almost hear your deep, strong voice telling me. Yeah, I know. You don't have to say it.

Stupid tree! More moisture fell on the page, staining and wrinkling a spot. I might have to move soon so the paper won't get ruined, after all this work.

Not that it matters to you, Yagami, but I no longer fight at the KOF. Nowhere else either, for that matter. I'm tired of the life of a fighter. It has recently lost all meaning, all its appeal... _[[__all your fault, obviously]]_ I don't know exactly why. I don't feel the smallest desire to fight, to prove to the world that I'm the best. I've proven that so many times, and so what? What did that accomplish? Only a little while ago (but it feels like a century) this was so important to me... _[[__And now I feel ridiculous for having been like that.]]_ But now I re-evaluate my priorities.

Look, this part matters to you even less, but since you kept sticking your nose on my business all the time, now you'll have to hear me. _[[__It's not like I have anyone else to confide in. I distanced myself from everyone on the past 6 months. I no longer have the fucking patience to]] _I haven't decided what to do with my life yet. Professionally, I mean.

For a while I entertained the idea of becoming a martial arts instructor, and I still think this would be the perfect fit for me... but _[[__I REALLY want to the hell stay away from anything associated with fighting]]_ I need a change of scenery. At least for a while, I want to stay away from this world. I'm finishing up a mechanics course; I'm already working as my own employer, buying _[[__old and broken]]_classic vintage motorcycles and I fix them up, then I resell them.

If you were here right now, you'd let out one of those evil, thunderous laughs of yours, and would tell me that _[[__I've got no brain]]_I was never great at school, _[[__that I'm stupid]]__, _that I'm plain stupid, and I'm only good for manual labor. For your information, Yagami, maybe this isn't the most exciting work in the world, but it keeps my hands and my head occupied. For the first time in my life I feel like I'm doing something constructive, grabbing something old, rusty, ruined... and creating something beautiful, shiny, new, that will make someone happy, take him to new adventures. The very opposite of what I used to do: fight, beat up, destroy, make bleed. _[[__Which are, by the way, the only things you did with your life]]._For now this suits me just fine, and if you don't approve, that is _your _problem, go fuck yourself!

Anyway.

I don't know if you're aware, if you saw it (from wherever you were), but everyone was really chocked with the news of your death. It wasn't a secret that your blood was cursed, that every Yagami dies quite young... but still. "A bad vase doesn't break," I've heard somewhere. That is what I used to believe...

In any case, your death was the news of the day all over the media. All those women crying and pulling their hair off on tv, calling your name, and reporters painting you as a martyr, a hero, a saint. Pfffffff. The guys from KOF couldn't believe it, nobody expected it. It was a really weird week. Beni (remember Benimaru Nikaido?) even cried, if you want to know, _[[__saying that it was such a waste, that the world had lost a huge source of yumminess. But don't mind Beni, he is like that.]]_

But don't worry, the hearts didn't remain broken for too long. Nobody mentions you anymore, not on tv, not our fighter colleagues. I think everyone has forgotten you, Yagami. _[[__Just as easily as they have forgotten me, when I told them to go fuck themselves as I needed to be alone.]]_There is not a single flower on your grave, look. Haha.

You deserve it. You were a selfish heartless bastard all your life, you never cared about anyone but yourself - what did you expect? That the world would cry your loss for ages? That the people you knew continued remembering you, talking about you? _[[__Feeling that their world has become empty and meaningless?]]_Only a great idiot would miss you!

I'm sorry to say, Yagami, but you are truly gone. And, no offence, but the world is a better place without you. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm only being honest.

And this brings me to the main reason why I came here and decided to write you this letter: you owe me! WHY THE HELL DID YOU GO AND DIE ALL OF A SUDDEN? WITHOUT TELLING ME FIRST? You were doing fine, being intolerable as always, we had a fight scheduled for that night at the usual park - remember? I was there like an idiot waiting for you, but you never showed up. I sensed that there was something wrong, after all you wouldn't miss a fight against me for anything,_ [[__not even for sex with the whores you used to go out with, I was always your priority]]__,_and, well, there was something strange in the air... it was like I could feel it inside, in my bones...

After hours waiting for you, Yagami, I went back to my apartment, furious, calling you every bad name on the books. I sat down on the couch with a beer, turned on the news... and saw astonished that you had been found dead that morning. The anchor said that the drummer from your band had gone pick you up for a practice, and found you on the bathroom floor, no longer alive, blood everywhere that you had vomited. A Blood Riot, for sure. You died alone, there on the cold white tile (yes, on the next day the news actually showed a video of your bathroom, already clean. You would have hated the invasion of privacy, would have set the building of the news channel on fire with your purple flames, sending it crashing down to the ground.)

_[[I'm extremely embarrassed to confess, I'm not ashamed at all to confess, as it's not my fault, but I got into shock. Not that I cared about you, obviously; it was just the surprise. I can't remember much, I just know that I "tuned out". I was awake, just not thinking about anything... only being. Next thing I knew, Beni and Shingo (remember my student?) had kicked the the door down and were shaking me. They told me I had been missing for three days, I hadn't been answering the phone or the door. I didn't remember any of that. And I still don't have the slightest idea why this happened to me. I mean - I'm not retarded, obviously your death caused it. But why on earth should it?]]_

What I'm trying to say is... You had no right to die, you bastard. Not that way. Gone, just like that. Without warning me, sending me a sign. You had a COMMITMEMT with me. A scheduled fight, to which you never showed up. You stood me up. I'm still waiting, metaphorically speaking, stuck in a limb; waiting for you to show up, to deal with unfinished business.

_[[This is what drives me insane. What kind of shit remains unfinished? I had the clear impression that many things are still pending between us; important things. But I don't know what they are. We were always honest in our hate for each other... neither of us has ever held back, not saying exactly what he was thinking.. so why do I have this impression that much remains unsaid?... This drives me nuts, I don't understand it!]]_

You had sworn to kill me,_[[__ Iori]]_Yagami. YOU SWORE IT. A vow that was repeated day after day, year after year, to exhaustion. You've all but branded it on my skin with a hot iron (you would have liked that, wouldn't you?) Where is your word of honor, damned bastard? WHERE IS YOUR WORD? I was supposed to be dead first; it's not that I wanted it – I didn't! – but I always thought that I would. "Yagami is going to die young, but he'll take my life first." You had promised. But no; selfish and heartless as always, you've left without letting me know, stood me up, left me here in a limbo, alone, fixing old bikes, not knowing what is going to happen 1, 3 years from now, BECAUSE I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO LIVE FOR ANOTHER 1 OR 3 YEARS, I WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE IN YOUR HANDS, I NEVER MADE PLANS, you stole my plans and then you stole my right of not having to make plans anymore because I would no longer be here. And now I am here, fixing rusted bikes twenty-four hours a day because I can't sleep and I don't want to think, I work and work like a madman because I don't know what to do with myself, because in reality I wanted to strangle you, punch you on the chest until I couldn't take it anymore, because you've left me here alone lost and not knowing where to go, working non-stop so I won't think and wanting to strangle you and punch you, and wanting to dig a hole in your damned grave and yank you out of the earth by the throat, slap your face until you wake up and fight against me again, _[[__and then absurdly hug you, hold you for dear life and never let you go ever again]]__, _making me feel alive again, laughing sadistically at me and insulting me, explaining to me where I should go, what is my purpose, because I don't know, I don't know, I DON'T HAVE THE SLIGHTEST IDEA WHAT I HAVE TO DO NOW.

DAMNED THAT TREE THAT WON'T STOP LEAKING!

You can laugh at my expense as much as you want, Iori Yagami. Wherever you are. Laugh, have a blast. You wouldn't if it were you going through this. I would never leave you alone like this. I would not be this cruel, not even with my worst enemy. But you always were a SELFISH ASSHOLE SON OF A BITCH. I bet you've done it intentionally, purposely dying to make my life hell, to make me even more miserable than you did before. But no one should ever do that... not even to his worst enemy!

_[[I can't stand talking about this anymore; my chest feels like it's about to explode. I'm crying of anger!]]_ It's getting dark, and I can't very well see what I'm writing. My handwriting must be illegible by now. This letter is too long already, anyway.

But I don't feel like going home yet. It's so calm here, so nice. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to stay a little longer. I won't bother you, write another letter, or speak out loud (I don't know, I think that talking would be kind of offensive to the other dead.) I'm just going to sit here, quietly, looking at the moon, keeping you company. I know that you hate my company, but bet you'd rather have it than being alone.

By the way, tonight is full moon; I can already see her, light in the sky. _[[__As usual, she reminds me of you.]]_Perhaps she will inspire you to manifest yourself and haunt me? If you can, please come, Yagami; I never feared you, and I wouldn't start now. _[[__I'd rather have your ghost stalking me than your empty absence that hurts so bad. Bastard.]]_

One more thing: don't you dare rest in peace. DON'T YOU DARE. Not before we finish what is pending... whatever that might be. Come haunt me, Yagami. Come on. I'll be counting on it. If not tonight, then at least one of these days. And if you don't come... I will be the one never leaving you in peace.

_[[Sincerely,]]__  
><em>_[[Hugs,]]__  
><em>_[[Love,]]_

See you soon, baka.

Kyo

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THE END

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_A/N: Liked it? Disliked it? Leave a review! :-)_

_Thank you for reading!_

_Mila_


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